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Wednesday, March 31, 1993 If r'.-r i 1 WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY OGDEN, UTAH VOLUME 53, ISSUE 63 t. in the Valley For story see page 6. fir . . N -r- . c 5 - - ! j s r DANIELLE MABEYTHf SIGNPOST Book worms JENNIFER BOWERS and David Harris arrange the used books inthe book exchange. The book exchange is sponsored by the Professional Accounting Society and will be open until today at noon. Committee debates teacher evaluation availability to WSU students, faculty By ERIC MORROW SIGNPOST govt, affairs editor After lengthy, careful debate, an ad-hoc committee comprised of faculty and students moved closer to a resolution concerning student access to previous students' evaluations of faculty. Some members of the committee, who recently attended a conference in San Francisco entitled "Developing a Comprehensive Faculty Evaluation System," returned with numerous ideas concerning the reassessment of faculty evalua tion methods currently in use. While addressing the issue of public availability of faculty evaluations, committee members were forced to debate the potential violation of instructors' privacy and confidentiality. Dr. Frank Guliuzza expressed serious concern with the privacy issue. Guliuzza compared the faculty rating scale to a student grading system. Then he argued that since students' grades are confidential, instructors' evaluations should also remain confidential. "It makes sense to suggest that if students have a right to keep their grades under wraps the faculty s ho u 1 d recei vethesamecour-tesy from the university, " Guliuzza said. Some disagree with Benally art pieces Attention received by performances upset other Native American students By MARK FORSBERG Signpost news editor The attention Curtis Benally's performance art pieces call to Native American culture is not considered good by most Native American students, said Jeffrey Simons, Native American counselor.At least 30 percent of Weber State University's students are Navajo, like Benally, and most "don't have good feelings" about Benally's work, Simons said. Some have commented to him that the performanceart pieces were weird Hesaid the performance art pieces could give students the wrong impression about Native Americans."When that's all some of the students ever see, some could conclude that's what Native T k IK - X CURTIS BENALLY performs an art piece that angered many other Native Americans. American's do," he said. "It's helping Curtis, but not the rest of us." Simons said the Native American Counsel (NAC) will have to take a stance on the work it supports, so students don't get the wrong ideas about Native Americans. If Benally does another piece, he said, the NAC will screen it, although it can't censor any of Native American Student Randy Boucher, who wrote a letter to the editor in Monday's edition of The Signpost criticizing Benally's performance, complained about Benally's use of tribal ceremonies, which many Native Americans consider sacred. He said Benally's latest performance was a take-off of the Sundance ceremony and was offensive to many Native Americans. "It would be like going in a sacred temple ceremony of the LDS church a nd ta ki ng pictures," he said. "There are certain ceremonies that you just don't talk about." He said Native American students will take some sort of action to prevent future performances.Benally said his performances are not depictions of particular Native American ritualsbuta tribute to the tribes or nations he represents. He said he intends to portray more than his own tribe. "There was not a Sundance going on there, none of the songs or words spoken were from the ritual," hesaid. "I stay away from specific rituals." He said he tries to convey the (See Benally page 2) "It makes sense to suggest that if students have a right to keep their grades underwraps the faculty should receive the same courtesy from the university." - Frank Guliuzza ASWSU President, Melinda Roylance proposed an additional evaluation form to be attached to current faculty evaluation forms. This new form, composed of six questions , would be made available to students to be completed. Then the distributive results would be revealed to the public rather than a mean score to a void potential student bias. Roylance believes that allowing student access will improve the students' opportunities to learn, and improve the quality of instructional the university. "Our bottom-line interest is in obtaining the most positive learning experience for our tuition dollar that is possible," she said. The committee plans to send the proposal to the Faculty Senate for approval as an individual voluntary pilot study for general education classes as soon as the rating form's questions are acceptable to committee members. Art A ARTS Allies Unplugged rocks to christiantunes at Dee Events Center. See page 8. g PORTS Weber State cowboys, cowgirls ride to victories. See page 11.

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Wednesday, March 31, 1993 If r'.-r i 1 WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY OGDEN, UTAH VOLUME 53, ISSUE 63 t. in the Valley For story see page 6. fir . . N -r- . c 5 - - ! j s r DANIELLE MABEYTHf SIGNPOST Book worms JENNIFER BOWERS and David Harris arrange the used books inthe book exchange. The book exchange is sponsored by the Professional Accounting Society and will be open until today at noon. Committee debates teacher evaluation availability to WSU students, faculty By ERIC MORROW SIGNPOST govt, affairs editor After lengthy, careful debate, an ad-hoc committee comprised of faculty and students moved closer to a resolution concerning student access to previous students' evaluations of faculty. Some members of the committee, who recently attended a conference in San Francisco entitled "Developing a Comprehensive Faculty Evaluation System," returned with numerous ideas concerning the reassessment of faculty evalua tion methods currently in use. While addressing the issue of public availability of faculty evaluations, committee members were forced to debate the potential violation of instructors' privacy and confidentiality. Dr. Frank Guliuzza expressed serious concern with the privacy issue. Guliuzza compared the faculty rating scale to a student grading system. Then he argued that since students' grades are confidential, instructors' evaluations should also remain confidential. "It makes sense to suggest that if students have a right to keep their grades under wraps the faculty s ho u 1 d recei vethesamecour-tesy from the university, " Guliuzza said. Some disagree with Benally art pieces Attention received by performances upset other Native American students By MARK FORSBERG Signpost news editor The attention Curtis Benally's performance art pieces call to Native American culture is not considered good by most Native American students, said Jeffrey Simons, Native American counselor.At least 30 percent of Weber State University's students are Navajo, like Benally, and most "don't have good feelings" about Benally's work, Simons said. Some have commented to him that the performanceart pieces were weird Hesaid the performance art pieces could give students the wrong impression about Native Americans."When that's all some of the students ever see, some could conclude that's what Native T k IK - X CURTIS BENALLY performs an art piece that angered many other Native Americans. American's do," he said. "It's helping Curtis, but not the rest of us." Simons said the Native American Counsel (NAC) will have to take a stance on the work it supports, so students don't get the wrong ideas about Native Americans. If Benally does another piece, he said, the NAC will screen it, although it can't censor any of Native American Student Randy Boucher, who wrote a letter to the editor in Monday's edition of The Signpost criticizing Benally's performance, complained about Benally's use of tribal ceremonies, which many Native Americans consider sacred. He said Benally's latest performance was a take-off of the Sundance ceremony and was offensive to many Native Americans. "It would be like going in a sacred temple ceremony of the LDS church a nd ta ki ng pictures," he said. "There are certain ceremonies that you just don't talk about." He said Native American students will take some sort of action to prevent future performances.Benally said his performances are not depictions of particular Native American ritualsbuta tribute to the tribes or nations he represents. He said he intends to portray more than his own tribe. "There was not a Sundance going on there, none of the songs or words spoken were from the ritual," hesaid. "I stay away from specific rituals." He said he tries to convey the (See Benally page 2) "It makes sense to suggest that if students have a right to keep their grades underwraps the faculty should receive the same courtesy from the university." - Frank Guliuzza ASWSU President, Melinda Roylance proposed an additional evaluation form to be attached to current faculty evaluation forms. This new form, composed of six questions , would be made available to students to be completed. Then the distributive results would be revealed to the public rather than a mean score to a void potential student bias. Roylance believes that allowing student access will improve the students' opportunities to learn, and improve the quality of instructional the university. "Our bottom-line interest is in obtaining the most positive learning experience for our tuition dollar that is possible," she said. The committee plans to send the proposal to the Faculty Senate for approval as an individual voluntary pilot study for general education classes as soon as the rating form's questions are acceptable to committee members. Art A ARTS Allies Unplugged rocks to christiantunes at Dee Events Center. See page 8. g PORTS Weber State cowboys, cowgirls ride to victories. See page 11.